1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to obstetrical-gynecological devices. More specifically, the present invention, in a preferred embodiment, pertains to intravaginal devices designed to control the collection of menstrual blood and to minimize leaking and spillage of blood from the vagina.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is known, the vagina is a conduit extending from the woman's cervix to the exterior of the body. The vaginal canal is about 9 or 10 cm long. Its lumen is generally quite small, however, it has great capacity to expand. Menstrual blood passes to the outside through the vaginal canal without the woman's control during periodic menses.
Pads have been known for decades but they are bulky, inconvenient, and need to be changed frequently.
More recently, the inconvenience to women resulting from the occurrence of periodic bleeding during the menstrual period have prompted attempts to control the outflow of menstrual bleeding by employing vaginal tampons. Vaginal tampons are common feminine hygiene product devices made of absorbing material and insertable into the vagina by the female user. Due to their absorbing material, tampons, once inserted into the vagina, begin to absorb the blood, which outflows from the cervix into the vagina. The tampons further serve as reservoirs aimed at delaying exit of the blood from the vaginal orifice until they become saturated with blood.
As a limitation, no known tampon is capable of entirely preventing leakage of blood from the vaginal orifice, regardless of shape, size, or absorbency capabilities of the material of which they are made. Blood may leak from the vaginal orifice because the tampon is saturated with blood or because the blood flow is disproportionately heavy for the absorbency capabilities of the inserted tampon. Additionally leakage may result because the tampon does not provide an adequate sealing with the vaginal walls, or orifice or for all the above reasons variously combined.
Various prior art innovations deals with the problem of leakage of menstrual blood through the tampons, for example, by providing additional blood reservoirs to the tampons. Others seek to prevent leakage by increasing the tampons absorbing capabilities by the means of improved absorbing material. Still others employ absorbing pads to apply to the vaginal orifice to capture the blood escaped from the tampon. No known device has been disclosed to provide means of entirely preventing leakage of menstrual blood.
Another group of menstrual hygiene devices introduced for the purpose of avoiding leakage of menstrual blood are the menstrual cups. Menstrual cups are not new in the art of feminine hygiene. U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,766 to Zoller, U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,942 to Waldron, U.S. Pat. No. 2,534,900 to Chalmers and U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,984 to Audrey all disclose a cup shaped menstrual collector made of flexible material impervious to fluid inserted into the vaginal canal for the purpose of collecting menstrual blood and preventing leakage of blood form the vaginal orifice. However, all these devices all suffer from poor ergonomic design. Specifically, they are all difficult to insert and remove. Regardless of the individual differences among the menstrual blood collector cups, the general design of all these devices makes their insertion into the vaginal canal an uncomfortable and difficult task. Removal of these devices is even more difficult and uncomfortable for the user than the insertion. Further, removal of these devices also pose health and safety issues. Particularly, women often struggle to remove these devices by inserting their fingers deep into the vagina, which can lead to finger nail abrasions. Such manual removal of the device risks physically injuring the interior of the vagina by fingernail scratching or tearing. Furthermore spillage of blood upon their removal is a very frequent occurrence. Indeed none of the menstrual cups is provided with an effective simple sealable closure apparatus of the cup opening apt to prevent spillage of blood.
In more recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the use of the menstrual cups in lieu of the napkin and the tampon. The menstrual cup is ideally comprised of soft material and is further reusable and convenient. However, menstrual cups have never gained acceptability among women due to difficulty of insertion and removal, and further due to leakage and spillage of blood upon removal.
As stated, conventional menstrual cups have been known for some time. A early example was proposed by Hagedorn, U.S. Pat. No. 1,996,242, entitled “Catamenial Receptacle.” Yet another example was proposed by Chalmers, U.S. Pat. No. 2,089,113, entitled “Catamenial Appliance.” Still another example was proposed by Crawford entitled “Menstrual Cup”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,248. Generally, all these named solutions use a cup to be inserted into the vagina for receiving menstrual blood.
Presently, menstrual cups have not achieved widespread acceptance from women due to certain factors that discourage some potential users. Initially, removal of the menstrual cup from the vagina should be accomplished on a regular basis for emptying, cleaning and hygienic purposes. This is inconvenient to the user. It is not convenient for the user to clean the menstrual cup immediately. This may cause hygienic problems or blood leakage. Additionally, a user may be embarrassed by having to clean the menstrual cup at the sink of a public lavatory. These are perhaps some reasons that the menstrual cup is not generally used.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an advanced menstrual collection device that provides better control of untimely leakage of menstrual blood. It is further an object of the present invention to offer a device capable of preventing blood leakage regardless of the anatomical size, shape, changing of direction and of the lumen contour of the vagina. It is an additional object of the present invention to propose a compressible hemispherical device capable of reliably achieving prevention of leakage of menstrual blood while being easy and comfortably inserted and worn.
These, as well as other advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description and drawings. It is understood that changes in the specific structure shown and described may be made within the scope of the claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.